Training Log: Surf City Half - Week 9

On paper, not a perfect week. Only 28.5 miles and my schedule was thrown off a bit. But that 12 mile long run on Sunday? It felt like a game changer. I felt SO good during the run, despite high humidity and rain for the first six or seven miles. The up-tempo miles felt easy breezy (until the last one, of course), and the entire run left me feeling reinvigorated when I'd previously been feeling just so over the whole training process.

While there wasn't the mileage I was aiming for this week (30+), the miles I did fit in were quality and I was happy with them. Goal this week is to hit that 30+, assuming my right hamstring cooperates. It felt a bit off from roughly mile 9 onward during my long run. It wasn't pain so much as an awareness of the right hamstring. I iced and elevated immediately and will be resting today. I may have to adjust this week depending on it because I am not about to injure myself so close to race day.


Training Log: Surf City Half - Week 9


Monday: Rest day.

No workout, but I did snap this picture of a vivid sunset.

Tuesday: 3x2400m + strength workout.

• 1 mile warm-up
• Dynamic stretching routine
• 3x2400m: (1) 8:43, (2) 8:38, (3) 8:21 <-- pace, not actual time each took
• 1 mile cool-down

Hadn't done 2400m repeats in a while. Warm-up mile was rough (go figure) but the actual repeats felt good. The pace felt pretty easy to maintain for the length of the repeat, but my right hamstring was a bit tender (theme of the week). My left shoulder was also tight and got worse during strength.

• Three sets of 12 reps of four exercises using a 40 lb bar (squat to press -- became just a squat because of shoulder pain, chest press, hip raises and single leg deadlifts)
• Two sets of 15 reps of core exercises (single leg bicycles on BOSU, toe taps on BOSU)

Wednesday: Easy 4 miles.

Just sort of meandered around the surrounding paths/parks for a total of four miles. It was a beautiful morning and I really enjoyed the time spent outside. Left shoulder was still hurting but my right hamstring felt fine.

Thursday: Rest day.

Life happens and I had to push Thursday's workout. Since I didn't want to take two rest days in a row, I decided to move Saturday's tempo run to Friday evening so that my legs would still be fatigued for Saturday's strength training and somewhat tired for Sunday's long run.

Friday: Progression run (6 miles total).

• 1 mile warm-up
• Dynamic stretching routine
• (1) 8:34, (2) 8:27, (3) 8:19, (4) 7:38
• 1 mile cool-down

Unfortunately I wasn't able to leave the office till 6:30 p.m., so I needed to shorten the tempo run up a bit. I made it more of a progression run and pushed harder on the last mile to try to make up for the shorter distance. This time my left hamstring was feeling incredibly tight.

Saturday: Strength training with Melanie.

We focused largely on the upper body while being mindful of (1) hamstrings that had been tender, (2) left shoulder that had been tight and painful, and (3) random right knee pain when I squatted too low. These are the times I'm really happy to be working with a trainer because she can really hone in on my form during exercises and tell me what to avoid and what to strengthen.

• 0.5 mile warm-up
• Two sets of 15 reps of eight exercises (squat to press with one arm, kneeling row, jumping lunges, weighted v-ups on exercise ball, etc) -- we did four exercises then repeated, three exercises then repeated, and finished with two rounds of a core exercise.

Has anyone seen these new self-powered Woodway treadmills? I hopped on one for about a minute and felt like it was too easy to go out of control but I want to give them more of a try next time I'm at the gym.

Given how many areas of my body were complaining throughout the week, I made an appointment for a sports massage post-training. My back and neck were a mess of knots, which I think was causing the shoulder pain, and my legs were also really tight. The massage therapist at Equinox, Christian, was fantastic and everything felt a lot fresher on Sunday -- no shoulder pain and legs were much less tight. Highly recommend him if you're looking for a sports massage in the Irvine/Newport Beach area!

I'd intended to do some easy shakeout miles, but both Melanie and the massage therapist thought it was best to just let my legs rest post-massage, so I took their advice.


Sunday: Long run (12 miles).

As I mentioned, I felt really strong during this run. I ran a large 12 mile loop around Irvine with the same run buddy from last week and it was so nice to have company again. I think I easily could have had a negative mental state, given the rain, if not for having someone to chat with. We ran in the afternoon, about two hours after brunch, so didn't fuel at all other than plain water. I brought along a gu just in case, but didn't feel like I needed it.

Plan was four easy, three up tempo (but not goal pace), three easy, last two fast. Splits are messy, I've indicated where a pace is for less than a mile:

(1) 9:53, (2) 9:43, (3) 10:00, (4) 10:07, (5) 9:05 pace for 0.67 miles, (6) 9:04, (7) 8:49, (8) 9:01, (9) 9:59, (10) 9:25, (11) 8:53 pace for 0.25 miles, (12) 8:36, (13) 8:04, (14) 8:00 for 0.1 miles. 12 miles total.

In the fifth mile, we hit a ridiculous puddle. It was roughly 30 feet long and looked to be about a foot deep so there was no way we were wading through it. We spent a good 10-15 minutes clambering along the muddy hillside (there was no way along the side of the pool), grappling with trees and brush and trying not to slide into the pool. We made it to the other side without any casualties, although our shoes were caked in mud.

The pause threw off our splits because my Garmin turned off to power save. Then in the middle of the first of the last two fast miles, my Garmin switched off again, so they're a big mess. But the average pace was 9:18, and since this route was actually fairly hilly in places, we were both happy with that.


Total Mileage = 28.5
Speed Mileage = 13.5